Family secrets can be many things, but they're usually secret for a good reason. Thanks to the Internet, however, we all finally have a way to unburden ourselves of these secrets without driving to the middle of nowhere and unloading on a stranger at a bar. One redditor asked people to divulge their dark family secrets, and boy were people ready to dish. Here are 11 of the best responses.
1. User inchypia's great uncle was apparently a character straight out of a Guy Ritchie action movie.
My great aunt and uncle were the sweetest people imaginable, When I was growing up they lived 4 houses down so I used to go around to there house a lot after school. My uncle Jimmy used to play dollies and tea party with me, I have very fond memories of them.
When my uncle Jimmy died I remember all these very professional looking old men at his funeral, surrounded by what looked like to me security guards. My mum casually mentioned to me many years later that my uncle Jimmy was an old fashioned English gangster, he did time for robbery and sex trafficking, he was also accused of murdering 4 people but there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute.
I was gobsmacked, additional to this my lovely Auntie Diane, his wife- was the madame at one of his brothels and recruited his sex slaves, She had also done time. I put 2 and 2 together and realized those men at his funeral were old gangsters. It really messed me up.
2. This family secret from cotmweasel isn't kept secret within the family, for everyone's safety.
Have a 2nd cousin that murdered his siblings and parents for insurance money.
He didn't get away with it. But only spent around 20 years in prison. He's out now, but no one talks about him or will speak to him. The only reason I even know is my parents warned me if he ever reaches out to me that I shouldn't talk to him. I managed to find out about him and what Happened by googling him.
3. This one from jakash is perhaps the furthest anyone's dad has ever traveled for that proverbial pack of cigarettes.
That my great great great grandpa left England for America and was supposed to send money for them to come over, but he never did. He just started a new family in America.
4. Maybe goshy900's great grandpa and jakash's great grandpa were friends (or the same guy).
My great grandfather had three families. Two in the states and one in Canada.
5. Conte_Vincero's family was right at the center of (the wrong side of) history!
We found a picture of two great aunts arm in arm with Hitler. We also have a signed photograph of Mussolini
6. Gather round, everyone, and hear the tale of DrProlapse's prostitute grandma.
My grandmother was a prostitute
Asked how they knew, the good doctor continued:
Just listening to my mother and aunt talk about her. She'd always have strange guys over for short periods of time, didn't really work much. She'd never talk about how she made money while learning to be a nurse. Or why Grampa left her. We all know she got around (no judgement, you go grandma), at least 5 kids by 5 men.
Just putting the pieces together.
Also one time my cousin called her a hooker. Much like the scene in Grandma's Boy. She was very upset by it and actually cut his ass out the will for a while
Furthermore
My grandma was a bad bitch.
Mom remembers some biker dude in West Virginia showing up to the house for god know's what. Grandma grabbed a bat and when he opened the door she hit him in the kidney with it. She just kept swinging until he left. He apparently never came back.
When I had commencement for high school graduation, grandma was pretty old and kinda falling apart, but some lady in a wheelchair went off a curb and you bet your ass Miss 40-years-of-nursing was there in an instant making sure she was okay.
She passed away in 2012. I do miss her.
7. SerenityHill48 uses some pretty harsh language about their great grandmother, but accurate.
My Great Grandmother was a dirty Irish scamming whore (sorry Nanny) in WW2 she used to scam multiple American and British soldiers who would come to Liverpool to be sent to the european front all at once into "marrying" her, then collect a percentage of their pay and pawn any jewelery she was given. She was the Queen of dependas.
8. A lot of things went wrong during WWII, but the experience of PotiusMori's great uncle may well have been the stupidest.
Its not exactly 'dark' per say, but my great uncle on my father's side is widely considered an idiot.
So my dad's family are very recent immigrants from Italy, and I guess my great uncle decided he wanted to visit his homeland (he was born there, but raised in America). The problem was he apperantly was completely oblivious to what was going on in the world, because he went to Italy in 1938. He ended up getting drafted into the Italian military since he was born there. Unfortunately for him, he was completely unaware he didnt actually have to join the Italian military, as the US would have contested it had he tried to get into contact with an embassy or something.
Luckily for him, he was only assigned to patrol around Italy, and Italy surrendered/turned on Mussolini before the Allies advanced far enough to encounter my great uncle. It was all apperantly very awkward since my grandfather and the rest of his brothers had been part of the US military and fought in Europe.
TLDR: My great uncle is probably the only guy to accidently join the wrong side of WW2.
9. Hopefully these secrets have limbered you up for the wild, multi-secret ride that is this family.
I have a few. 1) About 80% of my family members are coke heads. I found out after falling into the family habit right after highschool and having a break down where I told my brother. Guess some habits are genetic.
2) My mothers aunt passed a few years ago. We went to arizona for the funeral, which is where I met my Mother's side of the family for the first time. I learned 2 things that day. I'm Irish (the family has IRA ties), and apparently my aunt had been murdered. A few hours after the funeral we were all in the hotel room catching up when one of my Mother's cousin's (who hadn't showed up) called from a pay phone. He asked to be put on speaker and to have the kids leave the room. Since I had recently turned 18 they asked for me to stay. Turns out he found out that my now deceased aunt's dealer had cut her coke with some kind of posion. He got a confession from the guy before he offed him and dumped him in the desert. He said he was sorry he couldn't be there but also said they wouldn't see him for a few years. He said he loved us, apologized he never got to meet my brothers and I and hung up. No one has heard from him since.
3) My mother tried to abort me. She confessed this after an argument we had and said her life is better wothout me in it and that she doesn't love me. Apparently my drunken father had found out, showed up to the clinic, dragged her out by her hair, and told her that if she ever tried to abort me again he would kill her once I was born. Needless to say I won't cry we she finally ODs and gets put in the ground.
10. Let's dial it back with some low-key (alleged) cannibalism, instead from this awed grandchild.
My great grandfather was a bootlegger, and later, allegedly a cannibal during The Great Depression. I say allegedly because his friends claimed it was a rumor he started to keep people from messing with his family. They could never disprove it, though, because even up to his death he swore hed eaten a rivals liver. I should note he was a Native American, so he got the nickname Wen, short for wendigo.
My grandpa said it was all for show, though, cause Wen had to fight over things like milk and threaten the power company employees to keep them from turning the power off.
I have no idea how much is true, cause it seemed to be embellished all the way up to my grandpas death.
Someone pointed out that Wendigo is a particularly apt nickname for the circumstance, meaning "cannibal monster or evil spirit native to the northern forests." This prompted more details about the grandfather to emerge.
The superstition definitely helped his reputation, though from everything I heard, he was a gentle man.
My father tells a story about him and his younger brother eating dinner with Wen. Dad was round 5, his brother 3 or so. Wen had made cornbread and a pot of ham beans. He said they were so hungry that every time Wen sat down to eat with them, they were asking for more. Sit down and dad wanted more. Sat down and uncle wanted more. By the time he sat to his plate, they were full. They said Wen was laughing so hard he started to cry cause it was the first time since the depression that the kids at his table could eat until they were full, and he still had enough for himself.
By all accounts, he was a great guy.
11. Skipping over a lot more people with Nazi or slave-owning relatives, here is a story that was a dark secret a long ago and now rambunctiousmango's family finds hilarious.
Not exactly 'dark', but after my grandpa died we were going through his stuff and found an old letter. My very Christian, very conservative grandpa had gotten kicked out of college for organizing a panty raid and somehow no one ever knew.
Of course, we framed the letter and it's now hanging on the wall of my grandma's house